Palestine Police Force

This article is about the British colonial police service. For police services of the State of Palestine, see Palestinian Civil Police Force.
Palestine Police Force
Palestine Police Force badge
Palestine Police Force badge
Agency overview
Employees2,143 officers (1928)
  • 1,764 Arabs
  • 321 Jews
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdictionMandatory Palestine
Operational structure
HeadquartersJerusalem, Palestine

The Palestine Police Force was a British colonial police service established in Mandatory Palestine on 1 July 1920,[1] when High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from General Allenby's Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (South).[2] The police force was composed of Jewish, Arab and British officers. However, over the course of the Mandate, the police force became less representative of Palestinian populations and increasingly functioned to repress Palestinian political mobilization and to facilitate the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people.[3][4]

  1. ^ Sinclair, 2006.
  2. ^ Bernard Wasserstein, ‘Samuel, Herbert Louis, first Viscount Samuel (1870–1963)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2007 accessed 29 May 2007
  3. ^ "Palestine Police During the British Mandate". Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question – palquest. Retrieved 2023-12-02.
  4. ^ Knight, John (2011). "Securing Zion? Policing in British Palestine, 1917-39". European Review of History: Revue Européene d'Histoire. 18 (4): 523–543. doi:10.1080/13507486.2011.590283. S2CID 159855308 – via Taylor & Francis Online.